Reporting Live
by The Second Batgirl
Summary: Jimmy Jameson thought the only things worth reporting on in Angel Grove were the martial arts tournaments. But that was before Rita attacked.
1. The Power Rangers

The thing about reporting in Angel Grove was that there wasn't much to it. Nothing really happened in this city. The biggest news was which of Angel Grove's many martial artists would win the city championships. (Hint: It was usually Jason Lee Scott. Sometimes Jimmy wondered why he even bothered attending the matches.) Even covering the crime beat didn't give him much do to, since the Angel Grove police force spent most of their time getting stray animals out of trees.

Which was why Jimmy Jameson, ace reporter, was almost glad there was an earthquake that day. It was _news_. He got to call all sorts of scientists and ask them questions about earthquakes, and then go out and interview citizens about how they had reacted. It was actual reporting, not just the hum drum monotony that most reporting in Angel Grove was. It was _exciting_.

He was glad, of course, that there were no serious injuries. Angel Grove didn't get nearly as many earthquakes as some parts of California, but most of the buildings were earthquake proof anyway. It was one of the reasons why Angel Grove was one of the best places to live, if you could handle the small town feel. It wasn't quite up Jimmy's alley, and he'd been seriously thinking about applying at the Hasper City Chronicle.

But that was before he found himself in downtown Angel Grove, watching as a giant winged monkey stormed down the streets, brandishing his sword as he towered over the skyscrapers.

That wasn't something Jimmy Jameson had ever expected to see. He was a _reporter_, a real reporter. Not one of those ridiculous talking heads. He was a real reporter, he only reported the truth. But this. This was incredible. This was something that would win him a Pulitzer.

Well, fine, so what he was actually doing at the exact moment that the monkey appeared was interviewing people for the local news, which might have _technically_ made him a talking head.

"Are you getting that?" he shouted at his cameraman, Rick Carr.

"What is it?" Rick asked, as he started shooting. The ground was shaking as the monster tore down the street.

"I have no idea," Jimmy said honestly. "A monster."

"But they aren't real!"

The monster took that minute to prove exactly how real he was by bringing his sword down on one of the buildings, which crumpled almost as if it was made of cardboard.

"I'd say it's real enough!" Jimmy yelled as he dodged the glass that was falling to the ground. With one blow the monster had already done more damage to the city than the earthquake had done.

"Boss, the station wants us on the air," Rick said urgently, and Jimmy nodded. He waited for Rick's signal, and then began.

"This is Jimmy Jameson, reporting live from downtown Angel Grove for WAGT. What you are about to see might alarm you, but this is not a hoax or a prank. This is actually happening in our fair city."

He continued narrating, the words coming swiftly, as Rick's camera panned over the carnage being caused by the giant monster.

The ground began to rumble, and Jimmy looked out.

"Oh dear God," he whispered, "not another one." He took a deep breath, and then continued to talk. This was his responsibility. It didn't matter how much he wanted to run and hide.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, his voice shaking slightly. This was the news, and he would report on it. "It appears that a second monster has appeared. This is some sort of giant robot. I don't know where it came from, or how either of these got here, but... they're fighting each other! The monkey just knocked the robot into a building - I can't tell from here which one it is, but I think that whole section of the city was already evacuated. Wait, the robot is getting up. And it has a sword! The robot's eyes are glowing, and it's raising the sword and... did that monkey just vanish?" He blinked rapidly, not sure if he was seeing things. Giant monkeys couldn't just vanish without a trace. Well, maybe they could. It was a 40 foot tall giant monkey, he _supposed_ that it could vanish if it wanted to.

"It appears that the robot has defeated the monkey," he said, aware of both how ridiculous that sounded, and that the city was depending on him to update them on what was going on. He wanted to laugh, just based on how ridiculous everything was. He'd just watched a giant robot fight a giant monkey monster. He should be laughing. He should be crying.

He kept talking instead. Just reporting the news, getting through it all.

"There appear to be people coming out of the robot. There are five of them, in some sort of color coded... is that spandex? I guess we wait now to find out if these are our heroes, or if these are more invaders. I'm going to try and talk to them now."

He gestured for Rick to follow him, and approached the destruction. The monster had done a lot of damage to the downtown area. There were two buildings destroyed. He had no idea how Angel Grove was going to rebuild from this.

"Excuse me!" he shouted as he ran up to them. This was probably not the smartest idea he'd ever had, but somehow he'd managed to get to the color coded beings before even the police had. He guessed they were clearing up debris or trying to figure out what they were actually supposed to be doing in an emergency.

He finally reached the one in blue, and stuck a microphone in front of his helmet.

"This is Jimmy Jameson from WAGT, who are you guys, and what are you doing here?"

The blue one didn't answer, he just took a step back, and glanced over at the one in red. Jimmy guessed that maybe the red one was the leader, or maybe the one in blue didn't speak English. He walked a few steps over and held out the microphone again.

"We're the Power Rangers," the one in Red said, and the other four formed up behind him. "We're here to help protect Angel Grove."

"Power Rangers?" Jimmy repeated. That was a stupid name.

"Yes," the Red one answered, not offering any more information. Jimmy didn't press - he could ask about the names later, but for now he had a million other things to ask about.

"Who was that monkey thing?"

"His name is Goldar," the yellow one, the Yellow _Ranger_ answered, and Jimmy blinked, as he realized that she was female. "He works for Rita Repulsa, a witch who is trying to invade Earth."

"So she's some sort of space witch?" Jimmy asked.

"You could say that," the Yellow Ranger said.

"What is that robot thing you were fighting in?" Robot thing wasn't the most precise language, and Jimmy kicked himself for it almost as soon as the words left his mouth.

Surprisingly, it was the Blue Ranger who answered. "Those are our Zords," he said. "They are biomechanical robotic vehicles based off our individual dinosaurs. They combine to form the Megazord."

"And the weapon you were using?"

"Our Power Sword."

"Right," Jimmy said. He saw another car pulling up. Lois Brant, late again. There was no way he was going to let her get a better story than he did. "Okay, next question. Who are you guys?"

"We like, told you," the Pink Ranger said. "We're the Power Rangers!"

"Superheroes," the Black Ranger added.

"We'll talk to you next time," the Red Ranger said. "For now, we have to go." The five superheroes put their hands on the symbols on their belts, and vanished into a streak of multicolored lights, flashing across the sky.

"You heard it here first, folks," Jimmy said. "The Power Rangers, protectors of our city. We don't know who they are, or where they've come from, but apparently they are all that stands between us and Rita Repulsa's evil forces."


	2. The Green Ranger

"Black is a shade, not a color," Jimmy's editor, Perry Urich, said firmly.

"According to the Power Rangers it's a color. I'm keeping it."

"It's wrong!"

"Well, the Rangers also say that the Mastodon and the Sabre-Tooth Tiger are dinosaurs, and they're both mammals, so I don't think they're that worried about calling black a color."

"Get out of my office!"

"Whatever you say, chief," Jimmy said as he left Perry's office. He settled at his desk, his large, new, and very _nice_ desk that he'd been given once he became the official Power Rangers correspondent both for AGT and for the Angel Grove Gazette. His first article on the Power Rangers had been picked up by the AP, and Jimmy was more successful than he'd ever thought he would be. He'd been offered jobs with a variety of high profile papers, but there was no way he would leave Angel Grove. It was his home. It was _exciting_.

But he had still arranged for his columns on the Power Rangers to be carried in the New York Times. He wasn't _stupid_.

"Jameson!" Urich's voice rang out, and Jimmy winced. "Why aren't you covering the battle?"

Jimmy raced to look at the television - for once Lois Brant had beaten him to the story. Lois would be the one remembered as the reporter who watched as the Power Rangers fell.

Literally. They dropped out of the sky, their Zords broken.

"Move, Rick!" Jimmy ordered, as he raced for his van. He needed to be there, needed to report on what was going on.

And he wanted to know that the Power Rangers were okay. It had only been a month since the superheroes had appeared, and Angel Grove had embraced them wholeheartedly. The Rangers had destroyed over a dozen monsters in their short careers. In all that time, he'd never worried about them this much. Not even that time when the Terror Toad had swallowed most of them.

They kept the radio tuned into the news, heard Lois Brant's attempt to get an interview with the team to talk about their defeat, and then finally the tell-tale sound of teleportation. Some part of Jimmy was glad that Lois hadn't been able to get the interview - he wanted that for himself. But he needed to know that the Rangers were okay, that they had a plan to save the city. That something would be done. In the meantime, he continued on to the site of the battle. He did have some investigating to do, after all.

When they got back to the office, Jimmy ran straight to his desk, sat down at his computer and opened up WordPerfect. He had to decide how he wanted to write the article. The sensationalist in him wanted to write about how it was a disaster. The part of him that didn't want to panic Angel Grove wanted to downplay it. And the part of him that was a real reporter wanted to just report the facts, without trying to put his own bias in it.

It was that last part that won out. Well, almost. He couldn't resist adding in one line at the end. _While the Power Rangers may have lost this battle, they have never let our city down before. As long as the Power Rangers still live, we're sure that our city will continue to be safe._

He printed out his article and dropped it off on Urich's desk, before wandering over to see what Sally Grant was working on. She'd taken over his old job of reporting on the martial arts tournaments.

"So how many points did that Scott kid win by this time?" he asked.

"Actually, there was an upset," Sally told him, typing away furiously.

"He lost?" Jimmy asked, surprised. He'd always said that if Jason lost a tournament the whole city would collapse - he hadn't actually thought he was right.

"No!" Sally said. "There was a _tie_. This new kid, Tommy Oliver, entered. It was a good match, but Jason just couldn't pull it off."

Jimmy was shaking his head in disbelief, and the the ground began to shake along with him. Even after the last month, his brain's first instinct was that this was just an earthquake, but as usual, it wasn't. An earthquake would be safer, but this... well, in Angel Grove, there weren't earthquakes. There were only monster attacks. Rita had made something grow.

He, and every other reporter in the building, raced to the window that was facing downtown, but they didn't see anything. The rumbling happened again, and the sound of music floated in the windows on the other side of the building, overlooking the harbor. Ignoring the rumbling of the building, Jimmy pushed passed Sally, trying to see what was out there.

There was another Power Ranger.

This one was in green, but with some sort of gold breast plate on top of his uniform. He had a dagger brought up to his helmet, and appeared to be playing music on it.

"How is he blowing on that flute thing with his helmet on?" Rick asked Jimmy quietly.

"The same way Rita makes her monsters grow 40 feet tall, I guess," Jimmy said. "Some sort of magic." It wasn't a good explanation, and Jimmy hated using it. Magic was just what you used to explain things when you didn't have a good answer, and he still wasn't quite happy about living in a world where magic was actually the best answer you could give.

After the music ended for a second time, Jimmy nearly fell over when a new Zord rose out of the bay. It was big. By itself it was probably close to the same size as the Megazord was.

"New ally?" Rick asked.

"I don't think so." Jimmy was already running for the door as the Green Zord's first missiles hit one of the nearby buildings. "I think Rita's found her own Ranger!"

The reporters had a lot of practice evacuating by now. Most of the city did, in fact. After the first monster attack, there had been a cry for plans to be drawn up for what to do in the case of a monster attack. It had briefly made Angel Grove a national laughingstock, until the monster attacks had continued. Now they were necessary, and way more practical than those Duck and Cover drills had been back when Jimmy had been growing up.

"An evil Power Ranger? But the Rangers are..."

"Right there!" Jimmy shouted. The Megazord had appeared. Things were going to be okay.

He almost managed to believe that - right until the sun started to go out.

*

Sometimes the Power Rangers surprised him with how well they overcame challenges. The sun had righted itself, although nobody had really been able to explain how the unexpected solar eclipse had occurred, and from what Jimmy understood, the Power Rangers had eventually emerged victorious. He hadn't actually seen the final battle with the Green Ranger - nobody had. The Black Ranger had popped by the mayor's office long enough to say that the Rangers had won, and that had been the end of it. There were no details on what had happened with the Green Ranger, although most people guessed that he had been destroyed, same as all the other monsters.

Jimmy had nearly finished his last article on the Evil Ranger, when six streaks of colored light appeared in front of his desk. He barely had time to look up, when he realized that one of them was the Green Ranger.

Jimmy toppled over his chair in his haste to get away from the evil Ranger. He hadn't actually realized he could move that fast.

"Wait!" the Yellow Ranger said, as she took a step forward and grabbed his arm. "The Green Ranger is a member of our team now. Please, just hear us out."

Jimmy stared at her. "Are you guys granting me an interview?" he asked.

"We are!" the Pink Ranger said, bouncing a little on her heels. "It's like, we don't really have another way to tell T... the Green Ranger's story. And you've always been fair to us, and the people of Angel Grove trust you. Who better to share the truth with?"

"Of course we could always talk to Lois Brant if you don't want to talk to us," the Black Ranger said casually.

"No, no," Jimmy said hurriedly. "I'd be honored to interview you. Can you just wait one second for a camera man?"

"No video," the Red Ranger said. "Just questions."

"Right," Jimmy said, grabbing a tape recorder. He was getting the first real interview with the Rangers. They had answered some questions before, mostly to just give the names of the monsters they had destroyed, but nothing more in-depth than that. And now he was getting an interview. And a Pulitzer, he was sure of it.

"So, you're good now?" he asked the Green Ranger. It wasn't the most intelligent question to ask, but it was the main thing on his mind.

The Green Ranger laughed, and Jimmy flinched. He'd heard the Green Ranger laugh before, and it was terrifying. This wasn't quite the same. It was... less evil, more pained.

"I am," the Green Ranger said. "And I would like to apologize to you and the people of Angel Grove for what I did to you while I was under Rita's spell." He sounded sincere, and the Red Ranger reached out to place a hand on the Green Ranger's shoulder.

"You were under a spell?" Somewhere inside, Jimmy could hear his journalism teachers crying at his poor questioning. But he would like to see how they did questioning a bunch of superheroes, including a villain who was now claiming to have been under a spell.

Magic spells. Superheroes. What the hell was his life now?

"I was," the Green Ranger said, and even though his eyes were concealed by the helmet, Jimmy got the distinct impression that the Green Ranger was staring directly at him. "Rita placed a spell on me to try and make me hurt my friends. I wasn't able to fight it off. I did some really horrible things."

"Not that it was your fault," the Pink Ranger said firmly.

"I wish..." the Green Ranger said, and he trailed off. "Luckily for me, the other Rangers managed to find a way to break the spell. I'm firmly on the side of good now."

The other Rangers all nodded.

"And we're just supposed to believe you?" Jimmy asked skeptically.

"You're supposed to believe us," the Red Ranger said. "He's one of us now. He'll be helping protect Angel Grove."

"I'm going to make up for what I did while I was under Rita's spell," the Green Ranger said quietly, with a fierce determination that almost made Jimmy believe him. But the Green Ranger had done so much to hurt the city.

"You hurt the people's faith in the Power Rangers," he said quietly. "It really changed things, to see someone who looked like our defenders attack us. But I believe you, and I'll be sure to get the story out."

"Thank you," the Green Ranger told him, and Jimmy could hear the gratitude in his voice. The Rangers all touched their belts, and the six of them vanished.

"Not that I didn't have other questions," Jimmy muttered. He would just have to get that interview some other way.


	3. The Destruction of the Thunderzords

Jimmy Jameson noticed a lot of things; it was part of his job, after all. He especially noticed things about the Power Rangers. He knew that the White Ranger had once been the Green Ranger. He knew that the Blue and Pink Rangers were the only originals left. He knew... well, if he knew the identities of the Rangers, he would have a lot more money than he did now. At least he thought he would.

He tapped his pen on the table - he needed some sort of angle for this week's column on the Power Rangers. It had been a slow week, so he might have to stretch things a little.

His beeper went off, with the number signifying that there was another attack downtown. By this point, Jameson carried everything he needed. The actual thing was routine. He would show up, try and get some footage of the monster, wait for the Power Rangers, narrate the battle, and then get the details off the team. They were careful never to really give personal information - even after over a year, there was very little known about the Rangers. Even on the Harvey Garvey show they hadn't said much more than the basic stay in school message. (Why they had chosen to do Harvey Garvey's show was beyond Jimmy, really. The whole thing had been Jimmy's fault, when the Power Rangers had responded to his question about them being role models by saying they would love to talk about the power of education. It was just that he had meant for them to do the broadcast with _him_. At least it had been on his network.)

This battle went according to plan. He arrived, and watched as the smelly skeleton monster rampaged through the city. It looked like a normal battle, and Jimmy was fairly bored as the Zords transformed. He could remember back when he thought that watching the sequence of transformations had been exciting. Now he could barely muster the enthusiasm to narrate the battle.

"The Power Rangers have finished summoning their Zords. It shouldn't be long now before the battle is... Wait, there are four more monsters appearing?" Jimmy blinked in surprise as the monsters appeared. They were all old monsters, familiar ones that he knew that the Rangers had beaten before. He'd heard the Rangers say that Rita and Zedd had been bringing back old monsters of late, but he hadn't thought... but surely the Rangers could beat all five monsters. They had to.

He needed to talk. He should have known better than to think that everything would be just fine. That was the sort of complacency he'd railed against before the Power Rangers had been here.

He tried not to think of all the other times he'd doubted the Rangers. The time that they'd assumed that the Power Rangers had gone evil. The... well, whatever it had been during Power Rangers Day. The Power Rangers had always come out on top in the end.

"Those new monsters are pretty familiar," Jimmy narrated. "They're all ones that I know I've seen the Rangers destroy before. For those of you who may have missed watching previous battles, I believe those are the Fighting Flea, which was destroyed by the original Megazord. The Lizzinator - I think it may have taken Ultrazord to take out that one. I'm sure the third is the Octophantom, which the Rangers took down with their Thunderzord. And Rita and Zedd have also sent down the Stag Beetle, also destroyed by the Thunderzord."

"I wonder how Rita and Zedd keep bringing back all of these destroyed monsters," he mused. "I guess that could be our topic of conversation on the next Power Rangers discussion show. But the battle is... I have the utmost faith in our Power Rangers, but this one doesn't seem to be going very well. Even with the Thunder Megazord and the White Tigerzord in Warrior Mode, it just doesn't seem like there's enough to fight off all five of these monsters. The new skeleton one is tough."

"Wait - the Rangers have just managed to knock the Octophantom down. There's a minor explosion - I hope everyone has managed to evacuate from that section of the city. But it doesn't look like it's been destroyed."

"The Stag Beetle has the Thundermegazord in its claws. There's some sort of green energy crackling. The Zords are taking a pretty bad beating. Come on, Rangers!" Jimmy hadn't realized until then that he was shaking, and he tried to steady the camera that was pointed at the battle.

"The remaining monsters have all teamed up. The skeleton is firing his sword and there are all sorts of sparks flying off the Zords! They're shaking back and forth. Six beams of light just made it out of the Zords - I think the Rangers are evacuating!"

It had been just in time. The two mighty Zords fell back, explosions taking off pieces of them. Jimmy couldn't even bring himself to speak as an arm fell off the Thunderzord, and as the two Zords that had protected their city were destroyed.

A tiny part of him remembered that this was not the first time he'd seen the Zords destroyed. He'd watched the Zords rampage over the city under Rita's control. But there was something that felt different about this time. Something final.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, trying not to let his voice shake. "Ladies and gentlemen, it appears that the two Megazords have been destroyed. The Power Rangers are no more."

It took far too long to finish up at the site of the Thunermegazord's last battle and make his way back to the newsroom. For some reason, Jimmy hadn't been able to get near the destroyed Zords until the explosions had stopped; he could only guess that the Zords had a forcefield or something to protect them. When he did finally make his way through, there was nothing really left of the Zords - at least nothing that you could identify as being parts of them. Every advanced piece of technology was gone, so Jimmy could only guess that most of the ruined parts had been beamed away.

Traveling back through the city was hard - it had been a bad battle, and as much as the Power Rangers had tried to keep it contained, there was still damage to various parts of the city. And maybe because of that damage, although Jimmy doubted it, there was a feeling of despair that permeated every bit of the city. People were sitting outside their homes, looking over the damage, but their eyes always returned to the site of the Rangers' battle. Some were crying openly, and it hurt to watch them.

It was times like these when he was glad that he didn't have any kids. Some of the parents he passed were trying to explain to their kids what had happened, while others appeared to be making frantic plans to get out of the city before Rita and Zedd attacked again. He really couldn't blame them - without the Power Rangers to protect them, what could be done? He'd nearly made his way out when he saw two kids, barely into their teenage years, talking.

"Don't worry, little brother," the older one said, and Jimmy almost thought that maybe he shouldn't be listening in. "The Power Rangers will come back. They'll always come back."

"They said the Rangers were destroyed!" the younger brother answered.

"Well, even if they are, then I'll protect you. No matter what."

It was amazing what you could learn from kids. Resiliency of spirit and all that crap. This was what happened when kids could actually grow up knowing that superheroes were real, that there were forces for good in the world who would protect others. Even after seeing their heroes fall, they still seemed to think that there would be a team that would come back. Or they would be able to protect each other. For the first time, Jimmy thought that he might actually leave the world a better place than he had found it.

It had been over a day since the Rangers had vanished. Nobody actually wanted to use the word dead - there were no bodies, and there was the fact that Jimmy and others had thought they'd seen them teleport out of the Zords before they were destroyed. Most people were guessing that the Rangers were simply recovering from their injuries, or trying to regroup. Someone had even suggested that they were building new Zords.

Still, there had been no word from them. Jimmy was used to them popping into the mayor's office or a newsroom and giving a brief statement before they teleported away without taking any questions, but no reporter anywhere in the city had heard from them. What they had heard of were vigils - Angel Grove had held its own ceremony by candlelight the night before, but there were rumors that they were being held as far away as Switzerland at the World Peace Conference.

Nobody had seen the mayor, either. She was off making plans for ways to protect Angel Grove without the help of the Power Rangers. The military was being consulted, even. Jimmy was sure that there was a story in that - the mayor working with the United States military was sure to be worth reporting on. He was finding it hard to be concerned with the story, though. He was more worried about what was going to happen to Angel Grove the next time there was an attack.

"Jameson!" his editor's voice bellowed, and Jimmy winced. His editor only got that way when he really needed to make deadline, and he had plenty of time to finish up the article.

"Yes, chief?" he asked.

"Why isn't the article on my desk right _now_?"

"Still deciding the angle I want to take with it," Jimmy answered honestly, and Perry glared at him. "The Power Rangers, if they really are gone... this will hurt the city. I want to do it right - this will be something that people remember for years. I'm not going to squander the opportunity."

"If there is no article, you'll have done just that."

"I'll have one, don't worry," Jimmy said, as he stared at his blank computer screen. Coming up with the words to explain how everyone was feeling was hard - maybe the hardest assignment he'd ever been given. He'd managed to report the destruction as it happened. It was just this aftermath that was the problem. The idea that the Power Rangers were actually gone was just... one he couldn't wrap his head around.

The whole building started to shake, and people instinctively went for the windows.

"The skeleton is back!" someone shouted.

"What are those?" Rick asked, and Jimmy abandoned his computer to go look.

"New Zords," he said, staring out the window in relief. Jimmy watched long enough to see that the Rangers were more than holding their own before he turned back to his computer to write. He knew how this one was going to end.

_For twenty-four hours, the city was gripped by a panic. It looked as though our heroes had fallen - but they're back to prove that they will always be here to protect us. Our city mourned their loss, but without fail, the Rangers have returned to save us._

_While they were gone, we learned just how much this city needed the Power Rangers. But we also learned that we may not be able to count on them forever._


	4. The Zeo Rangers

Jimmy's head hurt. There was something that had been weird, something about a clock, but he'd be damned if he could remember what it was now. Actually, everything seemed off. He remembered that he'd spoken to someone about aliens. Of course, that could really be anything - he spoke about aliens every day, considering Rita and Zedd's attacks. But there was something different, something about alien Rangers?

He tried to just shrug it off. The Rangers-are-aliens idea was old by this point - the Rangers themselves had admitted that they'd gotten their powers from an alien being, but they'd refused to confirm or deny speculation on whether or not they were aliens. Opinion was fairly evenly split on whether that was because they were aliens and they just didn't want people to be uncomfortable with aliens protecting the city, or they were humans and they just wanted to keep the theory around to prevent people from figuring out their identities.

All thoughts of aliens left Jimmy's mind as robots began to make their way down the street. Well, not all thoughts, since they were probably alien robots. But they were definitely robots, with silver bodies and gold heads. They even walked like robots, or at least how Jimmy had always thought that robots would walk. Still, they were definitely not Putties or Tengas or any of the other things that Rita and Zedd had sent down to Angel Grove.

He needed to get away. There was no sign of the Power Rangers, and the _things_ were coming right at him. But he was a reporter, and he had a story to get. He brought his camera up, snapped a few photos, and wished that he'd had Rick with him, wished that there was a way to go live. If there was a new enemy then he needed to be reporting on it. The people needed to know.

Where were the Power Rangers? There hadn't been any battles that could have ended in their destruction lately, at least none that he had heard of. There had been rumors of some sort of explosion on the moon a while ago, so maybe they had fought a battle in space?

Jimmy took another photo of the robots, who were still marching forward in their odd formation, arms mechanically moving up and down as they walked. It was strange, even though they were marching down the street it was as if they hadn't seen him yet. He moved closer to them, still snapping photos as he went. As he got closer he could hear their very gears moving.

It wasn't like this was a battle - there was no fighting going on. Most of Angel Grove's citizens had scattered as soon as they had seen the robots. Jimmy was alone on the street.

It didn't even occur to him that this could be a problem until he was surrounded by the robots. He tried to take a step back, but apparently another swarm of them had come up from behind.

Jimmy did the only thing he could do - he lifted up his camera, and he took a picture. The robot stumbled backward, seemingly blinded by the flash, and the other robots all moved in. One of them leaned forward and ripped the camera out of Jimmy's hands, tossing it onto the street. THE sound of his camera shattering hurt even more than the punch that followed did. It was an expensive camera, and that was all his film! He had no story!

That didn't mean that the punch hadn't still hurt.

Jimmy fell to the ground, and winced as his wrist hit the pavement. He wasn't a martial artist like so many in the city were - he didn't really know how to fall. He tried to get up, but he accidentally put pressure on his wrist as he did, and that actually did hurt even more than his camera breaking had. And the robots were leaning in on him, and there was still no sign of the Power Rangers, and for the first time since the Power Rangers had appeared over a year before, he actually began to think that these robots might kill him.

He watched as the gold and silver robot brought up its fist, but then it paused. He lay there for a second, and then moved as quickly as he could out of the robot's way. As soon as he got to his feet, he saw why it had stopped.

There were five people in color coded spandex standing on a rooftop. But it wasn't the Power Rangers. At least it wasn't the Power Rangers he knew. There were six of his Rangers, not five, and the colors on these Rangers were wrong. Just the sight of a new Ranger in green nearly gave Jimmy a panic attack in a way that the robots hadn't been able to.

He didn't have his camera anymore, so clutching his injured wrist, Jimmy did the only thing he could in the situation - he ran as far as he could. Without the story, there was no reason for him to be trying to risk his life. He would back off and let the Power Rangers, or whatever the people in the new costumes were calling themselves, handle it.

As soon as he was far enough away that he wasn't in any immediate danger anymore, he turned to watch the fight. The new Rangers made their way through the robots, easily beating them. Even with the costume change, there was still something familiar about them. He was pretty sure that the Yellow one was a new Ranger, but he thought that the others were all veterans. The old Blue Ranger, who had been the only one of the original Rangers left, was not among them. The Pink Ranger was still the same, but he was having trouble guessing based on colors now. He thought that the old Green and White Ranger was wearing Red now. He momentarily wondered what the guy's wardrobe must be like when he was out of uniform, if he was ever out of uniform. But he doubted that the Rangers would wear their colors when they weren't morphed - that would be idiotic.

The new Blue one had a fighting style similar to the second Red Ranger, and he thought that the Green Ranger was the second Black Ranger. The five Rangers still worked as a team, and the robots vanished in a whirl of light.

The threat was gone, and camera or not, injury or not, Jimmy still had a job to do.

"New costumes?" he asked, trying to sound amused.

"Yes," the Red Ranger said, and the sound of his voice convinced Jimmy that this was in fact the former Green and White Ranger. "We're the Zeo Rangers now."

"What the hell does Zeo mean?" Jimmy asked. He didn't mean to be short with them, considering they had just saved his life, but his wrist really hurt.

He looked at the Blue Ranger out of habit, since the Blue Ranger was usually the one who supplied the long explanation, but the new Blue Ranger just shrugged.

"It's named after the crystal that supplies our new powers," the Green Ranger said quietly.

"So what are those things attacking us?"

"They're called Cogs," the Red Ranger answered confidently. "They're the foot soldiers of the Machine Empire under King Mondo and Queen Machina. Don't worry, we'll take care of them."

"You're hurt!" the Pink Ranger cut in, putting her gloved hand on his shoulder. She turned to the Red Ranger. "I'm taking him to the hospital," she said firmly. "I'll meet you back at the Power Chamber."

When Jimmy rematerialized in a flash of pink light, he managed to see that she had taken him to the hospital, right before he passed out.


	5. Passing the Torch

The Turbo Rangers approached Jimmy and the other reporters awkwardly. There was something off about all of their body language - they were definitely unaccustomed to speaking with reporters. They were stiff, and something about the way they moved just felt wrong to him. Everything was wrong.

Then it hit him - the team had changed again. There had been a change right when they had become Turbo Rangers, where the Blue Ranger had switched again. After being the longest running Ranger, that color was switching pretty often now. There was something odd about Blue Turbo - while the Blue Ranger had gone back to being the one who could give the technical answers, it was almost like the other Rangers were shielding him from Jimmy's questions, only really letting him answer when there was some sort of technical explanation that was beyond the rest of them. Jimmy never could make up his mind if the other Rangers were protecting the Blue Ranger, or if they were ashamed of him.

But now it seemed that the Blue Turbo Ranger was the senior member on the team. Everyone else was new.

This could have been his story. Jimmy could easily have found out everything he needed to know about the Power Rangers. He could probably find out their identities and all of their secrets if he wanted to. Since it was fairly obvious that these new Turbo Rangers were not the same ones he had spoken to only a few days before.

"Rangers!" he called, getting their attention so that they walked over to him. "Do you care to comment on why you've suddenly changed your lineup?" he asked. He'd lowered his voice as they approached, so that none of the other reporters could hear. He really didn't want Lois Brant figuring out what he'd just realized. She'd eat these Rangers alive.

Just like he could, if he wanted to.

It was a _story_. It was _the story_, if he was honest with himself. It was everything that he'd been working for the last two years. The secret identities were an instant ticket to fame and fortune. It was the story that every reporter wanted to get. But somehow getting that story just felt _wrong_.

The Rangers all froze. "We don't know what you're talking about," the Pink Ranger began, but the Red Ranger shook his head and she quieted down.

Jimmy just smiled. "I've been dealing with the Rangers since day one," he told her. "I've learned to identify you guys whenever you switch. And I'm telling you, four of you aren't the same Rangers I was talking to just last week."

The Rangers glanced at each other. "Can we not discuss this here?" the new Red asked.

"If you still know where my office is," Jimmy said. "I'll meet you there in half an hour, and we can discuss this before I go to print." He tried to sound a little threatening, to try and make sure that they would come. He really did want to talk to them about it.

He just wasn't sure if he wanted to print it.

*

As Jimmy waited for the Rangers to show up in his nice corner office, he thought about what he should do. He _should_ print the article - the people had the right to know that they were being protected by a new team. There were all sorts of articles he could get out of the story - speculation as to why the old team had left, whether or not the new team would be able to protect them, retrospectives on the careers of the old Rangers... there were so many things that he was already itching to start writing them. But something was holding him back.

The Rangers protected the city. They had never truly let them down before - whenever it had seemed like the Rangers were beaten, they had always come back better than before. It would be irresponsible of him to publicly doubt the new team - they had already beaten one monster without many problems. It would send the city into a panic. The citizens of Angel Grove had proved how resilient they were, how much they could overcome, but that was because they had faith in their protectors. Shaking that faith in them could have detrimental effects on the city.

And honestly, he owed the old team one. They had _saved his life_. Not just by saving the city, but they had personally saved him from a Cog attack. Somehow he felt that it would be wrong of him to expose them like that.

The familiar noise and light show meant that the Rangers had teleported into his office. He stood up and extended his hand to them. None of them took it. In fact, they didn't look pleased with him at all.

"Calm down," he told them, as he lowered his hand. "I'm not going to expose you, or your predecessors. But if it was this obvious to me that you were new, well, Lois Brant is a lot meaner than I am. And she won't sit on a story just to protect you."

He winced as he said it. The idea of sitting on this story was still hurting him. But he had a greater responsibility, to the community, and to the Power Rangers themselves.

The posture of the Rangers relaxed. "Thank you," the Red Ranger said. "We didn't realize how obvious we were."

Jimmy shrugged. "I've been watching the Rangers since the very beginning," he pointed out.

"The older Rangers said that you've been fair to them before," the new Yellow Ranger said. "The Evil Green Ranger, for example."

The Power Rangers respected his reporting. He stood up a little bit straighter.

"I was just telling the story," he said, suddenly realizing how much he must have impressed the Rangers with his reporting back then. He wondered if that was why the Pink Zeo Ranger had gone to the trouble of teleporting him to the hospital that day, but he doubted it. The Rangers would have done the same thing for anyone, not just someone that they respected.

"So," he said. "Can we talk about the switch for a moment? Off the record, of course," he added hastily. "And then I'll give you some tips on handling the Angel Grove press."

The Rangers all relaxed a little, and then they began to talk.


End file.
